What I bought: There are three basic choices -- fast, faster & fastest. After consulting my brother (our family PC expert), I opted for the lowest-priced plan. At $19.99 a month, it was still light years faster than the modem we'd been using. And, my brother pointed out -- unless I'm doing online gaming (not) or uploading and downloading gigantic files (not), having a faster connection would be useless.

Regarding the plans: When you call, they will try hard to sell you on the middle plan -- the $30-a-month plan. I knew they'd do this as it's a proven strategy that if you offer people three choices, they will always choose the one in the middle...thinking it's better than the lowest, but not as expensive as the best one. Just say no -- unless you're a big online gamer or whatever.

Installation costs: When I called to order service, she told me that they would schedule installers to come do whatever was necessary to hook the computer up (put in the cable connection,etc.). We already had a cable thing there because my husband (the wishful-thinking electrician) was thinking ahead when he built the office 5 years ago and stuck one there. But, there were still connections that were required to go to the outside box and other blah, blah, blah technical stuff. I expected her to tell me they'd do whatever was necessary for a mere $75 an hour. But...to my utter surprise...she said installation was just $30. So, at the day the installers came, I had to have a check for $49.95 for the installation and first month of service. Not bad at all.

Installation wait: It did take almost 2 weeks for her to schedule someone to do the installation -- they are that booked up. They come during the day, but can give you a 2 hour window...so you can arrange to be there or have someone else there to meet them.

How it works: Damned if I know...but there's now this blinky box sitting on top of my CPU that makes it possible for me to surf at lightening speed, use iTunes, and finally introduce my husband to the wonders of YouTube and my kids to something I'm already sorry I showed them -- www.webkinz.com. Now...we're all fighting for screen time.

Going wireless: I've bought the stuff -- thanks to some technical advice from our resident IT guys and a few really PC-savvy friends. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find the time to hook it up. All the "stuff" includes a router and two USB thingies that go into my old PC and my laptop and will allow me to use Road Runner over the house and link my PCs together.

Do I like it? Oooohhh....yes, yes, yes. It's definitely worth my $20 a month. If you are still suffering with dial-up and you are able to get Road Runner in your area...RUN to the phone & order it now.